Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Mutilated bodies found near Mexico's richest city

Police found five mutilated bodies outside the wealthy city of Monterrey on Tuesday, part of a series of attacks that killed 23 people and dragged the region deeper into Mexico's drug war.

Gunmen dumped the five dead men, their heads, arms and legs chopped off, on a street in the town of Montemorelos south of Monterrey just before dawn, police and witnesses said, in a escalation of killings since the New Year blamed on drug cartels and alarming locals and businesses.

The unprecedented spate of killings over the past 24 hours in and around Monterrey also included the drive-by shooting of three brothers while they were eating tacos, and an attack by gunmen on five men in a working class neighborhood. One woman died of a heart attack after witnessing that multiple homicide, and nine were killed in other shootings, police said.

"In this toll of 23 deaths ... it is clear this violence is being unleashed by warring criminals," said Jorge Domene, security spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state government. Monterrey is the state's capital.

DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Drug violence in Monterrey -- once considered a model city where income is double Mexico's average -- soared to record levels last year and killings have further intensified in the first few weeks of 2011.

At least 60 people have died in drug violence in just 18 days across Nuevo Leon, and gangs are increasingly targeting corrupt police they suspect are working for rivals. The state government is struggling to respond and has called on President Felipe Calderon to send more troops.

"The police don't have the capacity to patrol the streets. Business people know that they are opening and running their companies at their own risk," said Juan Ernesto Sandoval, the head of Monterrey's commerce, retail and tourism chamber.

Mexican and U.S. officials say that in Monterrey, an alliance of three cartels is trying to rid the region of the Zetas gang, which is led by former elite soldiers who switched sides to join organized crime in the 1990s, and take control.

With some 4 million people just 140 miles from the Texas border, Monterrey's slide into the drug war marks a dramatic unraveling of security in just over a year.

Home to global cement maker Cemex and foreign factories including General Electric, the region generates 8 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product with just 4 percent of the country's population. It was known across Latin America as a haven of peace and prosperity.

More than 34,000 people have been killed in drug violence across Mexico since Calderon sent the army to fight the cartels in 2006. The government says the bloodshed is a sign the gangs are weakening, but many Mexicans and rights groups worry the strategy has backfired, sparking a relentless stream of killings that is spilling out across the country.

10 comments:

I am guilty of supporting the Gulf Cartel against the Zeta's, in spirit only of course, it's getting kind of hard to in good conscience cheer on CDG, when innocents are dying in the streets, and bodies are being dismembered. I guess after a year or so, I wonder is it even possible to crush the Zeta's? Or to marginalize them? Is it too little too late? And, what is the price of CDG control? Is it too high? If we are the innocents family, then there is no question that it is.

While I do not agree with your comments, I find them thoughtful and reflective of what so many here have been thinking. No criticism from me, unlike the culeros who seem to know everything in this forum.

For those that actually live this reality day to day, the PRI control for more than half a century plays a part in this thought process. In bed with the cartels as they sold off the plazas to the highest bidder, with their hand out in exchange for a blind eye, is it any wonder that the public thinks that one of the older cartels is better than the Zetas?

But some of the comments are right (although rude) in that they are all murderers, extortionists, kidnappers and evil. There is no one group who is better than the others.

But it is sad to see my beloved adopted homeland of 22 years dying like this. Unlike so many others, I have a passport that allows me to leave.

Mexico died when the white trash of Europe arrived..aka The Spanish. The only people I respect are the indigenous natives of Mexico who have fought to this day to have nothing to do with the Spanish or the Mestizo. May those spiritless cultures vanish one day leaving Mexico to those who have ceaselessly revered its beauty and nature from which they've gained much wizdom for millenia and hopefully many more.

J I agree with you. CDG is a cartel but they are trying to end with the Z. CDG & LFM both are in NL getting rid of Z thats the only reason I support them && LFM is in NL helping poor families providing money, making houses for them && gave out expensive toys to kids in many ranches on christmas

I know I'm responding to an old post, but I cannot help saying "I just want to throw up!!!"

Partonizing these gangs of dealers, thugs and murderers because they help the poor and buy expensive toys for their kids is stupid, ridiculous, and the reason Mexico is in such a mess!

This mentality of 'it doesn't matter who helps me as long as I get a handout somewhere' always comes with a price. That price is pride in your own accomplishments and the freedom to think and act on your own. But the price is also your children who are taught to subordinate themselves to the gangs in a never ending cycle.